Sidonius Apollinaris: EPISTULARUM LIBRI IX

1. Exigis, domine fili, ut epistularum priorum limite irrupto stilus noster in ulteriora procurrat, numeri supradicti privilegio non contentus includi. addis et causas, quibus hic liber nonus octo superiorum voluminibus accrescat: eo quod Gaius Secundus, cuius nos orbitas sequi hoc opere pronuntias, paribus titulis opus epistulare determinet.

1. You demand, my lord son, that, the limit of the earlier epistles having been broken through, our stylus run forward into further parts, not content to be enclosed by the privilege of the aforesaid number. You also add reasons why this ninth book should accrue to the eight prior volumes: on the ground that Gaius Secundus, whose orbits you proclaim us to follow in this work, determines his epistolary opus by equal titles.

2. quae iubes non sunt improbabilia; quamquam et hoc ipsum, quod pie iniungis, arduum existat ac laudi quantulaecumque iam semel partae non opportunum, primum, quod opusculo prius edito praesentis augmenti sera coniunctio est; deinde, quod arbitros ante quoscumque, nisi fallimur, indecentissimum est materiae unius simplex principium, triplices epilogos inveniri.

2. the things you bid are not objectionable; although even this very thing, which you piously enjoin, proves arduous and not opportune to whatever small praise once already won, first, because, with the earlier little work published, the coupling of the present augmentation is belated; then, because before any arbiters whatsoever, unless we are mistaken, it is most indecent that, for one and the same matter, a simple beginning and triple epilogues be found.

3. pariter et nescio, qualiter fieri veniabile queat, quod coerceri nostra garrulitas nec post denuntiatum terminum sustinet: nisi quia forsitan qui modus potest paginis, non potest poni ipse amicitiis. quapropter esse te in quadam tuendae opinionis meae quasi specula decet curiosisque facti huiusce rationem manifestare quidque ad hoc sentiant optimi quique, rescripto quam frequentissimo mihi pandere.

3. likewise I do not know how it could be made venial, that our garrulity cannot be curbed, nor does it abide even after the announced limit: unless perhaps the measure which can be set for pages cannot itself be set for friendships. wherefore it befits you to be, as it were, in a certain watchtower for the safeguarding of my reputation, and to make manifest to the curious the rationale of this deed of mine, and what all the best men think about this, to lay open to me by a reply as most frequent as possible.

4. porro autem si me garrire compulso ipse reticere perseveraveris, te quoque silentii nostri talione ad vicem plecti non periniurium est. itaque tu primus, tu maxime ignosce negotio quod imponis ac ministerio. nos vero, si quod exemplar manibus occurrerit, libri marginibus octavi celeriter addemus.

4. moreover, if, with me compelled to chatter, you yourself shall have persevered in reticence, it is not a grievous injustice that you too be punished in turn by the talion of our silence. therefore you first, you most of all, forgive the business which you impose and the ministry. but we, if any exemplar should come to hand, will quickly add it on the margins of the eighth book.

5. etsi Apollinaris tuus + cui in ceteris rebus est in hac certe neglegentissimus, quippe qui perexiguum lectione teneatur vel coactus vel voluntarius; quantum tamen mihi videtur, qui patribus his iungi non recusaverim, quorum studio voto timori laudabile aliquid in filiis, licet difficile persuadeatur, difficilius sufficit. vale.

5. although your Apollinaris — who in other matters is, yet in this certainly is most negligent, since he is held only very little by reading, whether coerced or voluntary; yet, as it seems to me, I would not have refused to be joined to these fathers, by whose zeal, vow, and fear something laudable in sons, although it is hard to be persuaded, is more difficult to be brought to sufficiency. farewell.

EPISTULA II

LETTER 2

Sidonius domino papae Euphronio salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Euphronius, greetings.

1. Albiso antistes Proculusque levites, ideo nobis morum magistri pronuntiandi, quia vestri merentur esse discipuli, litteras detulerunt, quarum me sacrosancto donastis affectu; quae tamen litterae plurimum nobis honoris, plus oneris imponunt. unde et ipsarum sic benedictione laetor, quod iniunctione confundor, quippe qui ex asse turbatus vel ex parte non pareo. iubetis enim tam diversa quam nimia explicarique decernitis opus, quod ab extremitate mea tam difficile conpletur quam inpudenter incipitur.

1. Albiso the bishop and Proculus the Levite, therefore to be proclaimed by us masters of morals, because they deserve to be your disciples, brought letters, with whose most-sacrosanct affection you have endowed me; which letters nevertheless lay upon us very much of honor, more of burden. Whence I thus rejoice in their benediction, in that I am confounded by the injunction, indeed I, who, disturbed to the full, do not comply even in part. For you bid things as diverse as excessive, and you determine that a work be explicated, which, from my extremity, is as difficult to complete as it is impudent to begin.

2. sed si amplitudinem in vobis pietatis expertae bene metior, plus laborastis, ut affectus vestri cordis quam nostri operis effectus publicaretur. neque enim, cum Hieronymus interpres, dialecticus Augustinus, allegoricus Origenes gravidas tibi spiritalium sensuum spicas doctrinae salubris messe parturiant, nunc scilicet tibi a partibus meis arida ieiunantis linguae stipula crepitabunt. hoc more tu et olorinis cantibus anseres ravos et modificatis lusciniarum querelis inproborum passerum fringultientes susurros iure sociaveris.

2. but if I measure well the amplitude of the piety experienced in you, you have labored more that the affection of your heart rather than the effect of our work should be published. for neither indeed, when Jerome the Interpreter, Augustine the Dialectician, Origen the Allegorist are bringing forth for you pregnant ears of spiritual senses in the harvest of healthful doctrine, will there now, forsooth, from my quarter the dry stubble of a fasting tongue rattle for you. on this precedent you would with right have associated to the swan-like songs the hoarse geese, and to the modulated laments of nightingales the twittering whispers of shameless sparrows.

3. quid? quod sic quoque arroganter fieret indecenterque, si negotii praecepti pondus aggrederer, novus clericus peccator antiquus, scientia levi gravi conscientia, videlicet ut, si scriptum quocumque misissem, persona mea nec tunc abesset risui iudicantum, cum defuisset obtutui. ne, quaeso, domine papa, nimis exigas verecundiam meam qualitercumque latitantem coepti operis huiusce temeritate devenustari, quia tantus est livor derogatorum, ut materia, quam mittis, velocius sortiatur inchoata probrum quam terminata suffragium.

3. What? that it would even thus be done arrogantly and indecently, if I were to undertake the weight of the prescribed business, a new cleric, an old sinner, with slight knowledge and a grave conscience, namely, that, if I had sent the writing whithersoever, my person would not then be absent from the laughter of those judging, though it had been lacking to their gaze. Do not, I beg, lord pope, demand too much that my modesty, however lurking, be stripped of its comeliness by the rashness of this undertaken work, because so great is the livid envy of detractors, that the material which you send more swiftly, when begun, meets with reproach than, when finished, with suffrage.

memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA III

LETTER 3

Sidonius domino papae Fausto salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Faustus, greetings.

1. Servat consuetudinem suam tam facundia vestra quam pietas, atque ob hoc granditer, quod diserte scribitis, eloquium suspicimus, quod libenter, affectum. ceterum ad praesens petita venia prius impetrataque cautissimum reor ac saluberrimum per has maxume civitates, quae multum situ segreges agunt, dum sunt gentium motibus itinera suspecta, stilo frequentiori renuntiare dilataque tantisper mutui sedulitate sermonis curam potius assumere conticescendi. quod inter obstrictas affectu mediante personas asperrimum quamquam atque acerbissimum est, non tamen causis efficitur qualibuscumque, sed plurimis certis et necessariis quaeque diversis proficiscuntur ex originibus.

1. Both your facundity and your piety keep their custom, and on account of this we greatly look up to, because you write plainly, the eloquence, and—what we gladly do—the affection. moreover for the present, pardon first asked and obtained, I deem it most cautious and most salubrious, through these especially cities, which by their situation conduct themselves very segregated, while by the movements of peoples the routes are suspect, to report back with a more frequent stylus, and, the assiduity of mutual speech meanwhile deferred, rather to assume the care of keeping silence. which, although most rough and most acerb among persons bound, affection mediating, is nevertheless not brought about by just any causes, but by very many certain and necessary ones, each of which proceeds from different origins.

2. quarum ista calculo primore numerabitur, quod custodias aggerum publicorum nequaquam tabellarius transit inrequisitus, qui etsi periculi nihil, utpote crimine vacans, plurimum sane perpeti solet difficultatis, dum secretum omne gerulorum pervigil explorator indagat. quorum si forte responsio quantulumcumque ad interrogata trepidaverit, quae non inveniuntur scripta mandata creduntur; ac per hoc sustinet iniuriam plerumque qui mittitur, qui mittit invidiam, plusque in hoc tempore, quo aemulantum invicem sese pridem foedera statuta regnorum denuo per condiciones discordiosas ancipitia redduntur.

2. among which this will be counted in the first reckoning: that a courier by no means passes the guards of the public ramparts unexamined, who, although he has nothing of danger, as being void of crime, is yet truly accustomed to endure very much difficulty, while the ever‑vigilant explorer investigates every secret of the bearers. if by chance the reply of any of them has wavered ever so little to the questions, things which are not found written are believed to be mandates; and through this he who is sent for the most part sustains injury, he who sends, ill‑will—still more in this time, in which the long‑established treaties of rival kingdoms toward one another are once again rendered precarious by discordant conditions.

3. praeter hoc ipsa mens nostra domesticis hinc inde dispendiis saucia iacet; nam per officii imaginem vel, quod est verius, necessitatem solo patrio exactus, hoc relegatus variis quaquaversum fragoribus quia patior hic incommoda peregrini, illic damna proscripti. quocirca solvere modo litteras paulo politiores aut intempestive petor aut inpudenter aggredior, quas vel ioco lepidas vel stilo cultas alternare felicium est. porro autem quidam barbarismus est morum sermo iucundus et animus afflictus.

3. Besides this, our very mind lies wounded by domestic dispendia here and there; for under the semblance of duty, or—what is truer—of necessity, driven from my native soil, and here relegated amid various crashes on every side, I suffer here the inconveniences of a peregrine, there the damages of a proscribed man. Wherefore, to set forth letters a little more polished I either am importuned untimely or I approach it impudently—letters which it is the privilege of the fortunate to alternate, either charming in jest or cultivated by the stylus. Moreover, there is a kind of barbarism when the speech of manners is pleasant and the spirit is afflicted.

4. quin potius animam male sibi consciam et per horas ad recordata poenalis vitae debita contremescentem frequentissimis tuis illis et valentissimis orationum munerare suffragiis, precum peritus insulanarum, quas de palaestra congregationis heremitidis et de senatu Lirinensium cellulanorum in urbem quoque, cuius ecclesiae sacra superinspicis, transtulisti, nil ab abbate mutatus per sacerdotem, quippe cum novae dignitatis obtentu rigorem veteris disciplinae non relaxaveris. his igitur, ut supra dixi, precatibus efficacissimis obtine, ut portio nostra sit dominus atque ut ascripti turmis contribulium levitarum non remaneamus terreni, quibus terra non remanet inchoemusque ut a saeculi lucris, sic quoque a culpis peregrinari.

4. why not rather with those your most frequent and most puissant suffrages of orations endow a soul ill at ease with itself and trembling hour by hour at the recalled debts of a penal life—you, skilled in the prayers of islanders, which from the palestra of the hermitic congregation and from the senate of the Lérins cell-dwellers you have transferred into the city also, whose church’s sacred things you overseer, changed in nothing from abbot by the priesthood, since under the pretext of a new dignity you have not relaxed the rigor of the old discipline. by these therefore, as I said above, most efficacious prayers, obtain that our portion may be the Lord, and that, ascribed to the troops of our fellow-tribesmen the Levites— to whom no land remains— we may not remain earthly, and that we may begin, as from the age’s lucre, so also from faults, to peregrinate.

5. tertia est causa vel maxuma, exinde scribere tibi cur supersederim, quod immane suspicio dictandi istud in vobis tropologicum genus ac figuratum limatisque plurifariam verbis eminentissimum, quod vestra quam sumpsimus epistula ostendit: licet olim praedicationes tuas, nunc repentinas, nunc, ratio cum poposcisset, elucubratas, raucus plosor audierim, tunc praecipue, cum in Lugdunensis ecclesiae dedicatae festis hebdomadalibus collegarum sacrosanctorum rogatu exorareris, ut perorares. ubi te inter spiritales regulas vel forenses medioximum quiddam contionantem, quippe utrarumque doctissimum disciplinarum, pariter erectis sensibus auribusque curvatis ambiebamus, hinc parum factitantem desiderio nostro, quia iudicio satisfeceras.

5. the third cause, or the greatest, why thereafter I have refrained from writing to you, is that I hugely suspect in you this tropological and figurative genus of dictating, most eminent and polished on many sides in its words, which the letter of yours that we received shows: although once upon a time I, a hoarse applauder, heard your preachings, now sudden, now, when reason demanded it, wrought out by night-lamp, then especially, when at the weekly feasts of the dedicated church of Lyon you were prevailed upon at the request of the most holy colleagues to deliver a peroration. there we, with senses uplifted and ears bent, were thronging about you as you harangued something midmost between spiritual rules and forensic matters—indeed most learned in both disciplines—thus doing little for our desire, because you had satisfied our judgment.

6. hisce de causis temperavi stilo temperaboque, breviter locutus, ut paream, longum taciturus, ut discam. sunt de cetero tuae partes, domine papa, doctrinae salutaris singularisque: victuris operibus incumbere incumbere satis. neque enim, quisquis auscultat docentem te disputantemque, plus loqui discit quam facere laudanda.

6. for these causes I have tempered my pen and will temper it, having spoken briefly, that I may obey, about to be long silent, that I may learn. it is, for the rest, your part, lord pope, of salutary and singular doctrine: to apply yourself to works that will live—to apply yourself, to apply yourself enough. for indeed, whoever listens to you teaching and disputing learns not so much to speak as to do things laudable.

nunc vero, quod restat, donate venia paginam rusticanter vobis obsecundantem, cui me quoque auctore, si vestris litteris comparetur, stilus infantissimus inest.

Now indeed, as for what remains, grant pardon to the page, rustically and obsequiously complying with you, in which, with me also as author, if it be compared with your letters, there is a most infantile style.

7. sed ista quorsum stolidus allego? nam nimis deprecari ineptias ipsas est ineptissimum, in quibus tu merus arbiter, si rem ex asse discingas, ridebis plurima, plura culpabis. sed et illud amplector, si pro caritate qua polles non fueris usquequaque censendi continentissimus, id est, si sententia tua quippiam super his apicibus antiquet.

7. but to what end do I, stolid, allege these things? for to deprecate the very ineptitudes too much is most inept; in which you, the mere arbiter—if you lay the matter entirely bare—will laugh at very many things, at more you will find fault. but I also embrace this, if, by reason of the charity wherein you excel, you should not be altogether most restrained in judging—that is, if your sentence should antiquate anything concerning these niceties.

tunc enim certius te probasse reliqua gaudebo, si liturasse aliqua cognovero. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

then indeed I shall rejoice more surely that you have approved the rest, if I shall have learned that you have expunged some things. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA IV

LETTER 4

Sidonius domino papae Graeco salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Graecus, greeting.

1. Viator noster ac tabellarius terit orbitas itineris assueti spatium viae regionumque, quod oppida nostra discriminat, saepe relegendo. quocirca nos quoque decet semel propositae sedulitatis officia sectari, quae cum reliquis commeantibus tum praecipue Amantio intercurrente geminare cum quadam mentis intentione debemus, ne forte videatur ipse plus litteras ex more deposcere quam nos ex amore dictare, domine papa; ideoque vestrorum plus mementote, quos inter praesumimus computari, quique, sicut vestris erigimur secundis, ita deprimimur adversis.

1. Our traveler and letter-carrier wears down the ruts, by often retracing, of the accustomed journey—the span of road and of regions which discriminates our towns. Wherefore it befits us also to follow the duties of the diligence once proposed, which we ought to double, with a certain intention of mind, both with the other who come-and-go and especially with Amantius intervening, lest perhaps he seem to demand letters more out of custom than we to dictate them out of love, lord pope; and therefore be more mindful of your own, among whom we presume to be counted, and who, just as we are raised up by your prosperities, so we are pressed down by your adversities.

2. nam quod nuper quorumpiam fratrum necessitate multos pertuleritis angores, flebili ad flentes relatione pervenit. sed tu, flos sacerdotum gemma pontificum, scientia fortis fortior conscientia, minas undasque mundialium sperne nimborum, quia frequenter ipse docuisti, quod ad promissa convivia patriarcharum vel ad nectar caelestium poculorum per amaritudinum terrenarum calices perveniretur.

2. for the fact that, lately, by the necessity of certain brothers you have borne many anguishes, has come to the weeping by a tearful report. but you, flower of priests, gem of pontiffs, strong by knowledge, stronger by conscience, scorn the threats and the waves of worldly storm-clouds, because you yourself have frequently taught that one comes to the promised banquets of the patriarchs, or to the nectar of the celestial cups, through the chalices of earthly bitterness.

3. velis nolis, quisque contempti mediatoris consequitur regnum, sequitur exemplum. quantumlibet nobis anxietatum pateras vitae praesentis propinet afflictio, parva toleramus, si recordamur, quid biberit ad patibulum qui invitat ad caelum. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

3. Willing or unwilling, whoever attains the kingdom of the despised Mediator follows the example. However many goblets of anxieties of the present life affliction may proffer to us, we endure little, if we remember what he drank at the gibbet, he who invites to heaven. Deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA V

LETTER 5

Sidonius domino papae Iuliano salutem.

Sidonius to lord Pope Julian, greetings.

1. Etsi plusculum forte discreta, quam communis animus optabat, sede consistimus, non tamen medii itineris obiectu quantum ad solvendum spectat officium nostra sedulitas impediretur, nisi quod per regna divisi a commercio frequentiore sermonis diversarum sortium iure revocamur; quae nunc saltim post pacis initam pactionem quia fidelibus animis foederabuntur, apices nostri incipient commeare crebri, quoniam cessant esse suspecti.

1. Although we have settled in a seat perhaps somewhat more separated than our common spirit desired, nevertheless our assiduity, so far as pertains to discharging duty, would not be hindered by the obstacle of an intervening journey, except that, divided across kingdoms, we are by the law of different lots called back from the more frequent commerce of speech; but now at least, after a pact of peace has been entered, since faithful minds will be federated by treaty, our dispatches will begin to travel frequently, since they cease to be suspect.

2. proinde, domine papa, cum sacrosanctis fratribus vestris pariter Christo supplicaturas iungite preces, ut dignatus prosperare quae gerimus nostrique dominii temperans lites arma compescens illos muneretur innocentia, nos quiete, totos securitate. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

2. accordingly, lord pope, together with your sacrosanct brothers, join prayers to supplicate Christ, that, having deigned to prosper the things we carry on, and moderating the quarrels of our dominion, restraining arms, he may bestow on them innocence, on us quiet, on all security. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA VI

EPISTLE 6

Sidonius domino papae Ambrosio salutem.

Sidonius to lord pope Ambrose, greeting.

1. Viguit pro dilectissimo nostro (quid loquar nomen personam? tu recognosces cuncta) apud Christum tua sanctitas intercessionis effectu; de cuius facilitate iuvenali saepe nunc arbitris palam adscitis conquerebare, nunc tacitus ingemiscebas. igitur hic proxime abrupto contubernio ancillae propudiosissimae, cui se totum consuetudine obscena vinctus addixerat, patrimonio posteris famae subita sui correctione consuluit.

1. Your sanctity prevailed with Christ by the efficacy of intercession on behalf of our most beloved (what shall I say—name or person? you will recognize all things); about whose youthful indulgence you were often now complaining with arbiters openly admitted, now groaning in silence. Therefore he, having quite recently broken off the cohabitation with a most loathsome maidservant, to whom, bound by obscene custom, he had given himself up wholly, by a sudden correction of himself took thought for his patrimony, his posterity, his fame.

2. namque per rei familiaris damna vacuatus ut primum intellegere coepit et retractare, quantum de bonusculis avitis paternisque sumptuositas domesticae Charybdis abligurisset, quamquam sero resipiscens, attamen tandem veluti frenos momordit excussitque cervices atque Ulixeas, ut ferunt, ceras auribus figens fugit adversum vitia surdus meretricii blandimenta naufragii puellamque, prout decuit, intactam vir laudandus in matrimonium adsumpsit, tam moribus natalibusque summatem quam facultatis principalis.

2. for indeed, emptied through the losses of his household estate, as soon as he began to understand and to reconsider how much of the rather-small ancestral and paternal goods the sumptuousness of a domestic Charybdis had gobbled up, although coming to his senses late, yet at length he, as it were, bit the reins and shook free his neck, and, fixing to his ears, as they say, the Ulyssean wax, fled, deaf against vices, the meretricious blandishments of shipwreck; and, as was fitting, a maiden untouched a man to be praised took into matrimony, both of the highest standing in morals and birth and in principal means.

3. haec quidem gloria, si voluptates sic reliquisset, ut nec uxori coniugaretur; sed, etsi forte contingat ad bonos mores ab errore migrare, paucorum est incipere de maxumis, et eos, qui diu totum indulserint sibi, protinus totum et pariter incidere.

3. this indeed would be glory, if he had left pleasures thus, so that he were not even joined to a wife in wedlock; but, even if by chance it should befall to migrate from error to good morals, it is the part of few to begin from the greatest things, and for those who have long wholly indulged themselves, to cut off everything at once and equally.

4. quocirca vestrum est copulatis obtinere quam primum prece sedula spem liberorum; consequens erit, ut filio uno alterove susceptis (et nimis dixi) abstineat de cetero licitis, qui inlicita praesumpsit. namque et coniuges ipsi, quamquam nupti nuper, his moribus agunt, hac verecundia, vere ut agnoscas, si semel videris, plurimum esse quod differat ille honestissimus uxorius amor figmentis inlecebrisque concubinalibus. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

4. wherefore it is yours, you who have been coupled, to obtain as soon as possible by assiduous prayer the hope of children; it will follow that, with one or another son received (and I have said too much), he who has presumed upon illicit things will henceforth abstain even from the licit. for even the spouses themselves, although wed recently, conduct themselves with these morals, with this modesty—truly, that you may recognize, if once you should see, how far that most honorable uxorious love differs from concubinal figments and enticements. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA VII

LETTER 7

Sidonius domino papae Remigio salutem.

Sidonius to lord Father Remigius, greetings.

1. Quidam ab Arvernis Belgicam petens (persona mihi cognita est, causa ignota; nec refert), postquam Remos advenerat, scribam tuum sive bybliopolam pretio fors fuat officione demeritum copiosissimo velis nolis declamationum tuarum schedio emunxit. qui redux nobis atque oppido gloriabundus, quippe perceptis tot voluminibus, quaecumque detulerat, quamquam mercari paratis, quod tamen civis (nec erat iniustum), pro munere ingessit. curae mihi e vestigio fuit hisque qui student, cum merito lecturiremus, plurima tenere, cuncta transcribere.

1. A certain man setting out from the Arverni for Belgica (the person is known to me, the cause unknown; nor does it matter), after he had arrived at Reims, sucked out of your scribe or bibliopole—by a price perhaps, or won over by a service—a very copious booklet of your declamations, willy-nilly. He, returning to us and quite glorying, since he had got so many volumes, whatever he had brought—although we were ready to purchase—yet as a fellow citizen (nor was it unjust), he pressed upon us as a gift. It was forthwith a concern for me and for those who study, since we were with good reason itching to read, to retain very many things, to transcribe everything.

2. omnium assensu pronuntiatum pauca nunc posse similia dictari. etenim rarus aut nullus est, cui meditaturo par affatim assistat dispositio per causas, positio per litteras, compositio per syllabas, ad hoc opportunitas in exemplis fides in testimoniis, proprietas in epithetis urbanitas in figuris, virtus in argumentis pondus in sensibus, flumen in verbis fulmen in clausulis.

2. it was pronounced by the assent of all that few similar things can now be dictated. For indeed there is rare or none for whom, as he premeditates, there abundantly stands by an equal measure, disposition by causes, position in letters, composition by syllables, in addition opportuneness in examples, faith in testimonies, propriety in epithets, urbanity in figures, virtue in arguments, weight in senses, a flood in words, a thunderbolt in clauses.

3. structura vero fortis et firma coniunctionumque perfacetarum nexa caesuris insolubilibus sed nec hinc minus lubrica et levis ac modis omnibus erotundata quaeque lectoris linguam inoffensam decenter expediat, ne salebrosas passa iuncturas per cameram palati volutata balbutiat; tota denique liquida prorsus et ductilis, veluti cum crystallinas crustas aut onychitinas non impacto digitus ungue perlabitur, quippe si nihil eum rimosis obicibus exceptum tenax fractura remoretur.

3. but the structure strong and firm, and a nexus of most-witty conjunctions bound by indissoluble caesuras—yet nonetheless no less smooth and light, and in all modes euphoniously rounded—such as suitably unimpedes the reader’s tongue unoffended, lest, having met rugged joints, rolled about through the chamber of the palate, it should stammer; in sum, wholly liquid and altogether ductile, as when the finger, with its nail, glides over crystalline crusts or those of onyx without impact, provided that nothing delays it, the tenacious fracture having caught it among fissured obstacles.

4. quid plura? non extat ad praesens vivi hominis oratio, quam peritia tua non sine labore transgredi queat ac supervadere. unde et prope suspicor, domine papa, propter eloquium exundans atque ineffabile (venia sit dicto) te superbire.

4. what more? at present there does not exist the oration of a living man, which your expertise could, not without labor, overstep and overgo. whence also I almost suspect, lord pope, on account of the overflowing and ineffable eloquence (pardon the saying), that you grow proud.

sed licet bono fulgeas ut conscientiae sic dictionis ordinatissimae, nos tibi tamen minime sumus refugiendi, qui bene scripta laudamus, etsi laudanda non scribimus.

but although you shine with the good both of conscience and of most well-ordered diction, yet we are by no means to be shunned by you, we who praise well-written works, even if we do not write things to be laudable.

5. quocirca desine in posterum nostra declinare iudicia, quae nihil mordax nihil quoque minantur increpatorium. alioquin, si distuleris nostram sterilitatem facundis fecundare colloquiis, aucupabimus nundinas involantum et ultro scrinia tua coniventibus nobis ac subornantibus effractorum manus arguta populabitur inchoabisque tunc frustra moveri spoliatus furto, si nunc rogatus non moveris officio. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

5. wherefore cease henceforth to sidestep our judgments, which threaten nothing mordacious and nothing increpatory as well. otherwise, if you defer to fecundate our sterility by eloquent colloquies, we shall angle for the market-days of swoopers, and, with us conniving and suborning, a clever band of breakers-in will moreover plunder your scrinia; and then, despoiled by theft, you will begin to be moved in vain, if now, when entreated, you are not moved by duty. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA VIII

LETTER 8

Sidonius domino papae Principio salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Principius, greeting.

1. Quamquam nobis non opinantibus, desiderantibus tamen litteras tuas reddidit gerulus antiquus, idoneus inventus, cui iure repetita credantur officia, quandoquidem prima sic detulit. igitur affatu secundo vel potius benedictione donatus ipse quoque rependo alterum salve, obsequia combinans numeris aequata, non meritis.

1. Although we were not expecting it, yet while desiring it, your letters were delivered by the old bearer, found suitable, to whom repeated services may rightly be entrusted, since he thus conveyed the first. Therefore, endowed with a second address, or rather with a benediction, I too in turn repay another “hail,” combining courtesies matched in number, not in merits.

2. et quia, domine papa, modo vivimus iunctis abiunctisque regionibus conspectibusque mutuis frui dissociatae situ habitationis inhibemur, orate, ut optabili religiosoque decessu vitae praesentis angoribus atque onere perfuncti, cum iudicii dies sanctus offulserit cum resurrectione, agminibus vestris famulaturi vel sub Gabaoniticae servitutis occasione iungamur; quia secundum promissa caelestia, quae spoponderunt filios dei de nationibus congregandos, si nos reos venia soletur, dum vos beatos gloria manet, etsi per actionum differentiam, non tamen per locorum distantiam dividemur. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

2. and because, lord pope, now we live with joined, and we are hindered from enjoying regions and mutual sights, sundered by the disjunction of the site of habitation, pray that, by a desirable and religious departure, having been discharged from the anguishes and the burden of the present life, when the holy day of judgment shall have shone forth with the resurrection, we may be joined to your ranks to serve, even under the occasion of Gibeonite servitude; because according to the heavenly promises, which have pledged that the sons of God are to be gathered from the nations, if mercy solace us who are guilty, while glory abides for you blessed ones, we shall be divided indeed by a difference of actions, yet not by the distance of places. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA IX

LETTER 9

Sidonius domino papae Fausto salutem.

Sidonius to Lord Pope Faustus, greeting.

1. Longum tacere, vir sacratissime, nos in commune dequestus es; cognosco vestrae partis hinc studium, nostrae reatum non recognosco. namque iampridem iussus garrire non silui litteris istas antecurrentibus, quibus tamen recensendis, cum Reios advenerant, qui tunc Aptae fuistis, aptissime defuistis. idque votivum mihi granditer fuit ac peroptatum, ut epistula iniuncta nec negaretur scripta amicitiae nec subderetur lecta censurae.

1. You have complained, most sacred man, against us to our common account that we have been long silent; I recognize from this the zeal of your party, I do not recognize the guilt of ours. For indeed, long since, being ordered to chatter, I did not keep silent, with letters running before these; but for reviewing them, when they had arrived at Reii, you—who were then at Apt—were most aptly absent. And this was to me grandly votive and very much desired, that the epistle enjoined would neither be denied as a writing of friendship nor, when read, be subjected to censure.

2. ista omittamus. mitti paginam copiosam denuo iubes. parere properanti adsunt vota, causae absunt.

2. let us omit these things. you order that a copious page be sent anew. for one hurrying to obey, the wishes are present; the causes are absent.

nam salutatio, nisi negotium aliquod activa deportet materia, succincta est; quam qui porrigit verbis non necessariis, a regula Sallustiani tramitis detortus exorbitat, qui Catilinam culpat habuisse satis eloquentiae sapientiae parum. unde ave dicto mox vale dicimus. orate pro nobis.

For the salutation, unless some business conveys some active material, is succinct; whoever prolongs it with unnecessary words, detorted from the rule of the Sallustian track, deviates—he who censures Catiline as having enough eloquence, too little wisdom. Hence, with ave said, soon we say vale. Pray for us.

3. sed bene est, bene est, quia chartulam iam iamque complicaturo res forte succurrit, de qua exprobranda si diutius vel laetitia sese mea vel ira cohibuerit, ipse me accepta dignum contumelia iudicabo. venisti, magister, in manus meas (nec exulto tantum, verum insulto), venisti, et quidem talis, qualem abhinc longo iamdiu tempore desideria nostra praestolabantur. dubito sane utrum et invitus, at certe similis invito, quippe quo providente vel, si tamen hoc nimis abnuis, adquiescente sim tuis libris insalutatus hisque, quod multo est iniuriosius, territorium Arvernum cum praeterirent, non solum moenia mea, verum etiam latera radentibus.

3. but it is well, it is well, because, when I was just now about to fold up the little paper, a matter by chance comes to succor, about reproaching which, if either my joy or my anger should have held itself back any longer, I myself will judge myself, once it is received, worthy of contumely. You have come, master, into my hands (nor do I only exult, indeed I insult), you have come, and indeed such a one as our desires have long now been awaiting. I truly doubt whether even against your will, but certainly like one unwilling; since, with you foreseeing—or, if you still refuse this as too much, acquiescing—I am by your books un-saluted, and these, which is much more injurious, when they were passing by the Arvernian territory, grazing not only my walls but even my flanks.

4. an verebare, ne tuis dictis invideremus? sed dei indultu vitio nulli minus addicimur; cui si ita ut ceteris a mea parte subiaceretur, sic quoque auferret congrediendi aemulationem desperatio consequendi. an supercilium tamquam difficilis ac rigidi plosoris extimescebas?

4. Or did you fear, lest we should envy your sayings? But by God’s indult we are addicted to no vice less; and if, on my part, it were as subject as the rest, even so the desperation of succeeding would remove the emulation of engaging. Or were you dreading the supercilious brow, as of a difficult and rigid applauder?

ecquaenam est cuiquam peritiae cervix tanta quive hydrops, ut etiam tepida vestra non ferventissimis laudibus prosequatur?

What stiff-neckedness in anyone’s expertise, or what dropsy, is so great as not to attend even your tepid things with the most fervent laudations?

5. an ideo me fastidiendum negligendumque curasti, quia contemneres iuniorem? quod parum credo. an quia indoctum?

5. or for that reason did you take care that I be disdained and neglected, because you would contemn the junior? which I scarcely believe. or because unlearned?

quod magis fero, ita tamen, ut qui dicere ignorem, non et audire; quia et qui Circensibus ludis adfuerunt, sententiam de curribus non ferunt. an aliquo casu dissidebamus, ut putaremur his quos edidissetis libellis derogaturi? atqui praesule deo tenues nobis esse amicitias nec inimici fingere queunt.

which I endure the more, yet in such a way that, though I may not know how to speak, I do know how to hear; for even those who were present at the Circensian games do not pronounce a judgment about the chariots. Or were we by some chance at odds, so that we were thought about to derogate from those little books which you had issued? And yet, with God presiding, friendships cannot be tenuous for us, nor can enemies feign them.

6. 'ista quorsum?' inquis. ecce iam pando, vel quid indagasse me gaudeam vel quid te celasse succenseam. legi volumina tua, quae Riochatus antistes ac monachus atque istius mundi bis peregrinus Britannis tuis pro te reportat, illo iam in praesentiarum fausto potius, qui non senescit quique viventibus non defuturus post sepulturam fiet per ipsa quae scripsit sibi superstes.

6. 'To what purpose is that?' you ask. Behold, now I lay it open, both what I rejoice to have tracked down and what I am angry that you hid. I read your volumes, which Riochatus, bishop and monk and twice a pilgrim of this world, brings back on your behalf to your Britons, you now for the present rather fortunate in that boon which does not grow old and which, not about to fail the living, will, after burial, make you through the very things you have written a survivor of yourself.

igitur hic ipse venerabilis apud oppidum nostrum cum moraretur, donec gentium concitatarum procella defremeret, cuius immanis hinc et hinc turbo tunc inhorruerat, sic reliqua dona vestra detexit, ut perurbane quae praestantiora portabat operuerit, spinas meas illustrare dissimulans tuis floribus.

Therefore, while that very venerable man was staying at our town, until the tempest of aroused peoples should cease its roaring—whose immense whirlwind had then bristled on this side and that—he thus unveiled your remaining gifts that, in most urbane fashion, he covered over the more preeminent things he was carrying, pretending to illumine my thorns with your flowers.

7. sed post duos aut his amplius menses sic quoque a nobis cito profectum cum quipiam prodidissent de viatoribus mysticae gazae clausis involucris clam ferre thesauros, pernicibus equis insecutus abeuntem, qui facile possent itineris pridiani spatia praevertere, osculo in fauces occupati latronis insilui, humano ioco, gestu ferino, veluti si excussura quemcumque catulorum Parthi colla raptoris pede volatili tigris orbata superemicet.

7. but after two or more months, when certain of the viators had disclosed that thus also he had quickly set out from us, that, with the wrappings closed of a mystical gaza, he was secretly carrying treasures, I, with fleet horses, pursued the departing man—horses which could easily outstrip the stretches of the previous day’s journey—and with a kiss I sprang upon the throat of the preoccupied robber, in human jest, with a ferine gesture, just as if a tigress, bereft of whichever of her cubs, with winged foot were to spring up to shake off the neck of a Parthian robber.

8. quid multa? capti hospitis genua complector iumenta sisto, frena ligo sarcinas solvo, quaesitum volumen invenio produco, lectito excerpo maxima ex magnis capita defrustans. tribuit et quoddam dictare celeranti scribarum sequacitas saltuosa compendium, qui comprehendebant signis quod litteris non tenebant.

8. what more? I clasp the knees of the captured guest, I halt the beasts of burden, I bind the reins, I unloose the packs, I find the sought-for volume and bring it forth; I read and re-read, I excerpt, breaking off the greatest heads from great things. The saltatory sequacity of the scribes also granted a certain compendium to one dictating with celerity, as they grasped by signs what they did not hold by letters.

quibus lacrimis sane maduerimus mutuo vicissim fletu rigati, tunc cum ab amplexu saepe repetito separaremur, longum est dixisse nec refert; quod triumphali sufficit gaudio, spoliis onustum caritatis et spiritalis compotem praedae me domum rettuli.

with which tears we indeed were soaked, bedewed by mutual weeping in turn, then when from an embrace often repeated we were separated, it is long to tell and it does not matter; what suffices for triumphal joy is this: laden with the spoils of charity and possessed of spiritual booty, I brought myself home.

9. quaeris nunc, quid de manubiis meis iudicem; nollem adhuc prodere, quo diuturnius expectatione penderes; plus me enim ulciscerer, si quod sensi tacerem. sed iam nec ipse frustra superbis, utpote intellegens tibi inesse virtutem sic perorandi, ut lectori tuo seu reluctanti seu voluntario vis voluptatis excudat praeconii necessitatem. proinde accipe, quid super scriptis tuis et iniuriam passi censeamus.

9. you ask now what I judge about my spoils; I would not yet wish to disclose it, so that you might hang the longer in expectation; for I would avenge myself more, if I kept silent about what I sensed. But now neither do you yourself boast in vain, since you understand that there is in you the virtue of perorating thus, so that for your reader, whether reluctant or willing, the force of pleasure strikes out the necessity of heralding. Therefore receive what we, having suffered injury, judge concerning your writings.

10. legimus opus operosissimum multiplex, acre sublime, digestum titulis exemplisque congestum, bipertitum sub dialogi schemate, sub causarum themate quadripertitum. scripseras autem plurima ardenter plura pompose; simpliciter ista nec rustice; argute illa nec callide; gravia mature profunda sollicite, dubia constanter argumentosa disputatorie, quaedam severe quaepiam blande, cuncta moraliter lecte, potenter eloquentissime.

10. we read a most operose work, manifold, keen, sublime, digested by titles and crammed with examples, bipartite under the schema of dialogue, under the theme of causes quadripartite. you had written very many things ardently, more pompously; those things simply, yet not rustically; those shrewdly, yet not craftily; grave matters maturely, deep ones solicitously, doubtful ones steadfastly, rich in argument, disputatorily; certain things severely, certain things blandly; all things morally, choicely, powerfully, most eloquently.

11. itaque per tanta te genera narrandi toto latissimae dictationis campo secutus nil in facundia ceterorum, nil in ingeniis facile perspexi iuxta politum. quae me vera sentire satis approbas, cum nec offensus aliter iudico. denique absentis oratio, quantum opinamur, plus nequit crescere, nisi forsitan aliquid his addat coram loquentis auctoris vox manus, motus pudor.

11. thus, having followed you through so many genera of narrating over the whole field of the very broadest dictation, I readily perceived nothing in the facundity of the others, nothing in their talents, polished on a level with it. You sufficiently approve that I feel true things, since, not offended, I judge no otherwise. Finally, the oration of one absent, so far as we opine, cannot grow more, unless perhaps the voice, the hand, the movement, the modesty of the author speaking face to face should add something to these.

12. artifex igitur his animi litterarumque dotibus praeditus mulierem pulchram sed illam deuteronomio astipulante nubentem, domine papa, tibi iugasti; quam tu adhuc iuvenis inter hostiles conspicatus catervas, atque illic in acie contrariae partis adamatam, nil per obstantes repulsus proeliatores, desiderii brachio vincente rapuisti, philosophiam scilicet, quae violenter e numero sacrilegarum artium exempta raso capillo superfluae religionis ac supercilio scientiae saecularis amputatisque pervetustarum vestium rugis, id est tristis dialecticae flexibus falsa morum et illicita velantibus, mystico amplexu iam defaecata tecum membra coniunxit.

12. therefore, an artifex endowed with these endowments of mind and of letters, you yoked to yourself, lord pope, a beautiful woman—but one marrying with Deuteronomy assenting; whom you, still a youth, having caught sight among hostile cohorts, and there in the battle-line of the contrary party having been enamored of, repulsed by nothing through the fighters standing in the way, with the arm of desire prevailing, you seized—namely, Philosophy, who, violently removed from the number of sacrilegious arts, with the hair of superfluous religion and the eyebrow of secular knowledge shaved, and with the wrinkles of very ancient garments amputated—that is, the folds of gloomy Dialectic that veil false and illicit morals—now purified by a mystical embrace joined her limbs with you.

13. haec ab annis vestra iamdudum pedisequa primoribus, haec tuo lateri comes inseparabilis, sive in palaestris exerceris urbanis sive in abstrusis macerarere solitudinibus, haec Athenaei consors, haec monasterii, tecum mundanas abdicat, tecum supernas praedicat disciplinas. huic copulatum te matrimonio qui lacessiverit, sentiet ecclesiae Christi Platonis academiam militare teque nobilius philosophari; primum ineffabilem dei patris asserere cum sancti spiritus aeternitate sapientiam;

13. this, from your earliest years your handmaid, this, at your side an inseparable companion, whether you exercise yourself in urban palaestrae or are worn in abstruse solitudes, this one a consort of the Athenaeum, this one of the monastery, with you renounces worldly disciplines, with you proclaims the supernal disciplines. whoever shall provoke you, joined to her by marriage, will feel that the Academy of Plato serves as a soldier for the Church of Christ, and that you philosophize more nobly; first, to assert the ineffable Wisdom of God the Father together with the eternity of the Holy Spirit;

14. tum praeterea non caesariem pascere neque pallio aut clava velut sophisticis insignibus gloriari aut affectare de vestium discretione superbiam, nitore pompam, squalore iactantiam neque te satis hoc aemulari, quod per gymnasia pingantur Areopagitica vel prytanea curva cervice Speusippus Aratus panda, Zenon fronte contracta Epicurus cute distenta, Diogenes barba comante Socrates coma cadente, Aristoteles brachio exerto Xenocrates crure collecto, Heraclitus fletu oculis clausis Democritus risu labris apertis, Chrysippus digitis propter numerorum indicia constrictis, Euclides propter mensurarum spatia laxatis, Cleanthes propter utrumque corrosis.

14. then furthermore not to pasture a mane of hair, nor to glory in a cloak or a club as though in sophistic insignia, nor to affect pride from the distinction of garments, pomp in polish, bragging in squalor; nor to think it sufficient emulation that through the gymnasia, in Areopagitic or Prytaneum halls, there are painted: Speusippus with a curved neck, Aratus bowed; Zeno with contracted brow, Epicurus with distended skin; Diogenes with a flowing beard, Socrates with falling hair; Aristotle with bared arm, Xenocrates with leg drawn up; Heraclitus in weeping, with eyes closed, Democritus in laughter, with lips open; Chrysippus with his fingers constricted on account of the signs of numbers, Euclid with them loosened on account of the spaces of measures, Cleanthes with them gnawed on account of both.

15. quin potius experietur, quisque conflixerit, Stoicos Cynicos Peripateticos haeresiarchas propriis armis, propriis quoque concuti machinamentis. nam sectatores eorum, Christiano dogmati ac sensui si repugnaverint, mox te magistro ligati vernaculis implicaturis in retia sua praecipites implagabuntur, syllogismis tuae propositionis uncatis volubilem tergiversantum linguam inhamantibus, dum spiris categoricis lubricas quaestiones tu potius innodas acrium more medicorum, qui remedium contra venena, cum ratio compellit, et de serpente conficiunt.

15. nay rather, whoever shall have engaged will find the Stoics, Cynics, Peripatetics—heresiarchs—to be assailed by their own arms, and to be shaken also by their own engines. for their followers, if they have opposed the Christian dogma and sense, soon, with you as master, bound with homegrown entanglements, will be tripped headlong into their own nets, the hooked syllogisms of your proposition latching onto the glib, tergiversating tongue; while with categorical coils you rather tie in knots the slippery questions, after the manner of more acute physicians, who, when reason compels, even from the serpent fashion a remedy against poisons.

16. sed hoc temporibus istis sub tuae tantum vel contemplatione conscientiae vel virtute doctrinae. nam quis aequali vestigia tua gressu sequatur, cui datum est soli loqui melius quam didiceris, vivere melius quam loquaris? quocirca merito te beatissimum boni omnes idque supra omnes tua tempestate concelebrabunt, cuius ita dictis vita factisque dupliciter inclaruit, ut, quando quidem tuos annos iam dextra numeraverit, saeculo praedicatus tuo, desiderandus alieno, utraque laudabilis actione, decedas te relicturus externis, tua proximis.

16. but this, in these times, under only the contemplation of your conscience or the virtue of your doctrine. For who could follow your footsteps with an equal stride, to whom alone it has been given to speak better than you have learned, to live better than you speak? Wherefore, deservedly, all good men—and that above all in your own season—will co-celebrate you as most blessed, whose life has thus in double wise become illustrious by sayings and by deeds, so that, when indeed now the right hand shall have numbered your years, proclaimed to your own age, to be longed for by another, praiseworthy in each action, you may depart, about to leave yourself to outsiders, your own things to your nearest.

memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

Deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA X

LETTER 10

Sidonius domino papae Aprunculo salutem.

Sidonius to the lord pope Aprunculus, greeting.

1. Reddidit tibi epistulas meas quem mihi tuas offerre par fuerat; nam frater noster Caelestius nuper ad te reversus de Biterrensi quoddam mihi super statu Iniuriosi nostri vinculum cessionis elicuit. quod quidem scripsi non minus tua verecundia fractus quam voluntate: namque nos ultro vestro pudori quasi quibusdam pedibus obsequii decuit occurrere.

1. He delivered to you my letters—he who ought, on equal terms, to have proffered yours to me; for our brother Caelestius, lately returned to you, drew from me, about the Biterrensian matter, a certain bond of cession concerning the status of our Iniuriosus. Which indeed I wrote, broken no less by your modesty than by my own will: for it befitted us of our own accord to run to meet your modesty with, as it were, certain feet of deference.

2. quocirca me quoque volente posside indultum, sed liberaliter (nec enim, ut suspicor, plus aliquid hoc genere solacii vel ipse quaesisti), quem litteris istis non commendatoriis minus quam refusoriis iam placatus insinuo; sic tamen, ut tibi assistat, tibi pareat, te sequatur atque ut, si permanserit tecum, neutri nostrum iudicetur famulus, si forte discesserit, quaeratur utrique fugitivus. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

2. wherefore, with me also willing, possess the grant, but generously (for indeed, as I suspect, you yourself did not seek anything more in this kind of solace), him whom in these letters—now appeased—I present as no less dismissory than commendatory; yet on this condition, that he stand by you, obey you, follow you, and that, if he remains with you, he be judged the servant of neither of us; if by chance he should depart, let him be sought by each of us as a fugitive. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA XI

LETTER 11

Sidonius domino papae Lupo salutem.

Sidonius to lord bishop Lupus, greeting.

1. Propter libellum, quem non ad vos magis quam per vos missum putastis, epistulam vestram non ad me magis quam in me scriptam recepi. ad exprobrata respondeo pro aequitate causae, non pro aequalitate facundiae. quamquam quis nunc ego aut quantus qui agere praesumam vobis imputantibus innocentem?

1. On account of the little book, which you supposed was sent not so much to you as through you, I received your letter written not so much to me as against me. I reply to the reproaches for the equity of the cause, not for an equality of facundity. Although, who am I now, or how great, that I should presume to plead myself innocent before you who are making imputations?

quocirca delicto huic, quantulumcumque est, inter principia confestim supplico ignosci, diffidentiae tantum, non et superbiae fassus errorem.

Wherefore, for this delict, however small it is, at the outset I forthwith supplicate that it be pardoned, confessing an error of diffidence only, and not also of pride.

2. nam cum mihi rigor censurae tuae in litteris aeque ut moribus sit ambifariam contremescendus, fateor tamen in voluminis ipsius operisque reseratu illam mihi fuisse plus oneri quam praetenditis caritatem. nec citra iustum ista conicio, quandoquidem mortalium mentibus vis haec naturalitus inest, ut, si quid perperam fiat, minus indulgeant plus amici.

2. for although the rigor of your censure, in letters as well as in morals, is for me to be trembled at on both sides, I confess nevertheless that, in the unsealing of the volume itself and of the work, that was to me more a burden than the charity you profess. nor do I conjecture these things without what is just, since this force is naturally inborn in the minds of mortals: that, if anything is done amiss, those who are more friends indulge the less.

3. scripseram librum, sicut pronuntiatis, plenum onustumque vario causarum temporum personarumque congestu: facturus rem videbar impudentissimam, si tantum mihi cuncta placuissent, ut nulla tibi displicitura confiderem; huc item, quisquis iudicii eventus foret, vidi partibus meis nequaquam pietatis ex solido constare rationem, si non saltim vobis esset anterius allatum volumen, etsi non videretur oblatum; sub hoc scilicet temperamento, ut, si forte placuissem, non vos arrogantia praeterisse, si secus, non vos improbitas expetisse iudicaretur.

3. I had written a book, as you have pronounced, full and laden with a varied congeries of causes, times, and persons: I seemed about to do a most impudent thing, if all things had so pleased me that I should trust nothing would displease you; furthermore, whatever the event of the judgment might be, I saw that on my part the account of piety would by no means rest upon a solid basis, if at least the volume had not been brought to you earlier, even if it did not seem to have been offered; under this, namely, tempering: that, if by chance I had pleased, it should not be judged that arrogance had passed you by; if otherwise, that it was not improbity that had sought you.

4. nec sane multo labore me credidi deprecaturum vitatas causas erubescendi. pariter illud nosse vos noveram, quod auctores in operibus edendis pudor potius quam constantia decet quodque tetricis puncta censoribus tardius procacitas recitatoris quam trepidatio excudit. alioquin, si quis est ille qui cum fiduciae praerogativa thematis ante inauditi operam pervulgat, incipit expectationi publicae, quamvis solverit multa, plura redhibere.

4. nor indeed did I believe I should, with much labor, have to deprecate the shunned causes of blushing. Alike I knew that you knew this: that for authors in bringing out works, modesty rather than constancy befits; and that, from stern censors, the stings are hammered out more slowly by a reciter’s procacity than by his trepidation. Otherwise, if there is that man who, with the prerogative of confidence, publishes his labor on a theme hitherto unheard, he begins to render back to public expectation, although he has discharged many things, yet more.

praeterea quidquid super huiusce rescripti tenore censueris, malui factum confiteri simpliciter quam trebaciter diffiteri.

Moreover, whatever you shall have determined concerning the tenor of this rescript, I preferred to confess the deed simply rather than to deny it in Trebatian, quibbling fashion.

5. dixisset alius: "neminem tibi praetuli, nullas ad ullum peculiares litteras dedi: quem praelatum suspicabare, unius epistulae forma contentus abscessit, atque ea quidem nihil super praesenti negotio deferente: tu, qui te quereris omissum, tribus loquacissimis paginis fatigatus potius in nausiam concitaris, dum frequenter insulsae lectionis verbis inanibus immoraris. adde, quia etiam in hoc, quod forsitan non notasti, reverentiae tuae meritorumque ratio servata est, quod sicut tu antistitum ceterorum cathedris, prior est tuus in libro titulus. illius nomen vix semel tantum et sibi adscripta pagina sonat; tuo praeter tibi deputatas frequenter illustrantur alienae.

5. another would have said: "I have preferred no one to you, I have given no peculiar letters to anyone: the man whom you suspected as preferred departed content with the form of a single epistle, and that indeed conveying nothing about the present business; you, who complain that you were passed over, being wearied by three most loquacious pages are rather stirred into nausea, while you linger repeatedly over the empty words of an insipid reading. Add, too, that even in this—what perhaps you did not note—consideration of your reverence and your merits was observed, in that, just as you are prior to the cathedrae of the other prelates, your title stands earlier in the book. His name sounds scarcely once, and on a page assigned to himself; by yours, besides those allotted to you, pages belonging to others are frequently made illustrious."

6. illud his iunge, quod, si quid ibi vel causaliter placet, tu per consilium meum lectitas, ille quandoque per beneficium tuum, qui munusculi mei incassum pressus invidia necdum ad facultatem legendi, ut suspicor, venit, cum iamdiu ipse perveneris ad copiam transferendi. aio, tamquam non sit autholographas membranas arbitraturus, si tamen, quod ante percurras, vel exemplar acceperit; neque enim in his, quae tractaveris, ulla culpabitur aut distinctionum raritas aut frequentia barbarismorum. nempe ad extremum palam videtur etiam tibi transmissa proprietas, cui usus absque temporis fixi praescriptione transmissus est quique supradicto tamdiu potes uti libello, ut eum non amplius zothecula tua quam memoria concludat."

6. add to these this: that, if anything there pleases even on grounds of argument, you keep reading it through my counsel, he at some point through your beneficium—he who, pressed to no purpose by envy at my little gift, has not yet, as I suspect, come to the faculty of reading—whereas you long ago have arrived at the plenty of copying. I say this as though he would not be about to judge the autograph parchments, if at least he should receive even an exemplar which you run through beforehand; for in those things which you will have handled, neither will a rarity of distinctions nor a frequency of barbarisms be blamed. Indeed, finally, it also appears plain that the proprietas has been transferred to you, to which the use has been conveyed without the prescription of fixed time, and you can use the aforesaid little book for so long that it is enclosed no more by your zothecula than by your memory."

7. haec et his plura fors aliquis. ego vero cuncta praetereo et malo precari veniam quam reatum, si hoc esse creditur, deprecari. praesentum quoque neglegentiam litterarum nunc nec excuso, primum quod, etsi cupiam, parum cultius scribere queo, dein quod libellari opere confecto animus tandem feriaturus iam quae propalare dissimulat excolere detrectat.

7. perhaps someone will [say] these things and more besides. I, however, pass all by, and I prefer to beg pardon rather than to deprecate the charge, if this is believed to be one. Nor do I now excuse the negligence of my present letters, first because, even if I desire it, I am scarcely able to write more cultivatedly; then because, the booklet-work being completed, the mind, at last about to holiday, now declines to polish what it pretends to make public.

8. at tamen, cum satis tibi et quidem merito (quidnam enim simile?) in omnibus cedam, quippe qui in alio genere virtutum iam per quinquennia decem non aequaevis sacerdotibus tantum verum et antiquis, quotiens collatus, antelatus quoque sis, noveris volo, quamvis astra questibus quatias atque maiorum cineres favillasque in testimonium laesae caritatis implores, pedem me conflictui tuo, si mutuo super amore certandum est, non retracturum, quia cum in ceteris rebus tum foedissimum perquam est in dilectione superari. quae velis nolis certa professio conviciis tuis illis cuncta sane blandimentorum mella vincentibus non praeter aequum reponderatur.

8. but yet, although in all things I yield to you sufficiently and indeed deservedly (for what indeed is like it?), since in another genus of virtues already for fifty years, as often as you were compared, you have been not only to coeval priests but even to the ancients preferred, I wish you to know, although you shake the stars with complaints and implore the ashes and embers of the ancestors as witness of wounded charity, that I will not draw back my foot from your conflict, if there must be a contest about mutual love, because, as in other matters, so it is exceedingly most foul to be surpassed in dilection. This fixed profession, whether you will or not, is returned—not beyond what is fair—to those your reproaches, which indeed outdo all the honeys of blandishments.

9. ecce habes litteras tam garrulas ferme quam requirebas; quamquam sunt omnes, si quae uspiam tamen sunt, loquacissimae. namque in audentiam sermocinandi quem non ipse compellas? qui omnium (de me enim taceo) litteratorum, licet oculi affectent, sic ingenia producis, ut solet aquam terrae visceribus absconditam per atomos bibulas radius extrahere solaris?

9. Behold, you have a letter almost as garrulous as you required; although all such letters, if anywhere there are any, are most loquacious. For into the audacity of sermonizing, whom do you not yourself compel? You—of all men of letters (of me, indeed, I am silent)—though your eyes be affected, thus draw forth talents, as a solar ray is wont to extract water hidden in the bowels of the earth through bibulous atoms.

cuius [lucis] aculeo non sola penetratur aut harena subtilis aut humus fossilis, sed si saxei montis oppressu fontium conditorum vena celetur, aperit arcanum liquentis elementi secretorum caelestium natura violentior. ita si quos, vir sacrosancte, studiosorum senseris aut quietos aut verecundos aut in obscuro iacentis famae recessu delitescentes, hos eloquii tui claritas artifice confabulatu, dum compellat, et publicat.

by whose [light’s] sting not only fine sand or diggable soil is penetrated, but also, if by the pressure of a rocky mountain the vein of hidden springs is concealed, the more violent nature of celestial secrets lays open the arcanum of the liquid element. thus, if you perceive any of the studious, most-sacrosanct man, either quiet or modest or skulking in the recess of a fame lying in obscurity, the brightness of your eloquence, by an artful confabulation, while it addresses, also makes them public.

10. sed quorsum + quam moris est? redeamus ad causam, super cuius abundante blateratu, quia pareo, precor, ut errata confessum veniae clementis indultu placatus impertias, licet, quae laetitia tua sancta quaeque communio, copiosius hilarere, si meae culpae defensio potius tibi scripta feratur quam satisfactio. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.

10. but to what end + more than is customary? let us return to the matter, about which, for my abundant babbling—since I obey—I pray that, as one confessing errors, you, appeased, may bestow the grant of merciful pardon; although your holy joy and our communion might be more copiously gladdened, if a defense of my fault were brought to you in writing rather than satisfaction. deign to be mindful of us, lord pope.

EPISTULA XII

LETTER 12

Sidonius Oresio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Oresius, greeting.

1. Venit in nostras a te profecta pagina manus, quae trahit multam similitudinem de sale Hispano in iugis caeso Tarraconensibus. nam recensenti lucida et salsa est, nec tamen propter hoc ipsum mellea minus, si sermo dulcis et propositionibus acet: sic enim oblectat eloquio quod turbat imperio, quippe qui parum metiens, quid ordinis agam, carmina a nobis nunc novat petat. primum ab exordio religiosae professionis huic principaliter exercitio renuntiavi, quia nimirum facilitati posset accommodari, si me occupasset levitas versuum, quem respicere coeperat gravitas actionum.

1. A page, dispatched by you, came into our hands, which draws much likeness to Spanish salt quarried on the Tarraconensian ridges. For, to the taster, it is limpid and salty, nor yet on that very account less honeyed, if the discourse is sweet and, in its propositions, acidic: for thus it delights by eloquence what it perturbs by command, inasmuch as he, taking too little measure of what office I am about, now makes anew a petition for poems from us. First, from the exordium of my religious profession I principally renounced this exercise; because, to be sure, accommodation could be made to facility, if the lightness of verses had preoccupied me—me whom the gravity of actions had begun to regard.

2. tum praeterea constat omnem operam, si longa intercapedine quiescat, aegre resumi. quisnam enim ignoret cunctis aut artificibus aut artibus maximum decus usu venire, cumque studia consueta non frequentantur, brachia in corporibus, ingenia pigrescere in artibus? unde est et illud, quod sero correptus aut raro plus arcus manui, iugo bos, equus freno rebellat.

2. then furthermore it is agreed that every endeavor, if it rests with a long interval, is with difficulty resumed. For who, indeed, is ignorant that to all, whether to artificers or to arts, the greatest honor comes from use, and that when accustomed studies are not frequented, the arms in bodies, the wits in the arts grow sluggish? whence also that saying, that, when taken up late or seldom, the bow rebels against the hand, the ox against the yoke, the horse against the bridle.

insuper desidiae nostrae verecundia comes ad hoc sententiam inclinat, ut me, postquam in silentio decurri tres olympiadas, tam pudeat novum poema conficere quam pigeat.

Moreover, modesty, the companion of my sloth, inclines my judgment to this: that, after I have run through three Olympiads in silence, it shames me as much to compose a new poem as it irks me to do so.

3. hoc item nefas etiam difficilia factu tibi negari, cuius affectum tanto minus decipi decet, quanto constantius nil repulsam veretur. tenebimus igitur quippiam medium et sicut epigrammata recentia modo nulla dictabo, ita litteras, si quae iacebunt versu refertae, scilicet ante praesentis officii necessitatem, mittam tibi, petens, ne tu sis eatenus iustitiae praevaricator, ut me opineris numquam ab huiusmodi conscriptione temperaturum. neque enim suffragio tuo minus augear, si forte digneris iam modestum potius quam facetum existimare.

3. Likewise, it would be a wrong that even things difficult to do be denied to you, whose affection it the less befits to be deceived, the more steadfastly he fears no refusal. We will therefore hold to something of a middle course; and just as I will dictate no recent epigrams for the moment, so I will send you letters, if any shall lie ready filled with verse, namely before the necessity of the present office, begging that you not be so far a prevaricator of justice as to suppose me never about to refrain from a composition of this kind. For I shall be no less augmented by your suffrage, if perchance you deign now to esteem me modest rather than witty.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA XIII

LETTER 13

Sidonius Tonantio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Tonantius, greetings.

1. Est quidem, fateor, versibus meis sententia tua tam plausibilis olim, tam favorabilis, ut poetarum me quibusque lectissimis comparandum putes, certe compluribus anteponendum. crederem tibi, si non, ut multum sapis, ita quoque multum me amares. hinc est, quod de laudibus meis caritas tua mentiri potest nec potest fallere.

1. There is indeed, I confess, your sentiment toward my verses so plausible once, so favorable, that you think me to be compared with the most select of poets, certainly to be set before quite many. i would believe you, if, as you are very wise, you did not also love me very much. hence it is that about my praises your affection can lie and cannot deceive.

2. praeter hoc poscis, ut Horatiana incude formatos Asclepiadeos tibi quospiam, quibus inter bibendum pronuntiandis exerceare, transmittam. pareo iniunctis, licet, si umquam, modo maxime prosario loquendi genere districtus occupatusque. denique probabis circa nos plurima ex parte metrorum studia refrigescere; non enim promptum est unum eundemque probe facere aliquid et raro.

2. Besides this you ask that I transmit to you some Asclepiadeans fashioned on the Horatian anvil, with which, for recitation while drinking, you may exercise yourself. I comply with the injunctions, although, if ever, just now I am most of all constrained and occupied with a prosaic manner of speaking. Finally you will find that in our circle the studies of meters are for the most part growing cold; for it is not easy for one and the same person to do something both properly and rarely.

Iam dudum teretes hendecasyllabos
attrito calamis pollice lusimus,
quos cantare magis pro choriambicis
excusso poteras mobilius pede;
(5) sed tu per Calabri tramitis aggerem
vis ut nostra dehinc cursitet orbita,
qua Flaccus lyricos Pindaricum ad melos
frenis flexit equos plectripotentibus,
dum metro quatitur chorda Glyconio,
(10) nec non Alcaico vel Pherecratio,
iuncto Lesbiaco sive anapaestico,
vernans per varii carminis eglogas,
verborum violis multicoloribus.
istud, da veniam, fingere vatibus
(15) priscis difficile est, difficile et mihi,
ut diversa sonans os epigrammata
nil crebras titubet propter epistulas,
quas cantu ac modulis luxuriantibus
lascivire vetat mascula dictio.
(20) istud vix Leo, rex Castalii chori,
vix, hunc qui sequitur, Lampridius queat,
declamans gemini pondere sub stili
coram discipulis Burdigalensibus.

For a long while now we have played with polished hendecasyllables,
with the thumb rubbed raw by pens, and toyed;
which you could sing more nimbly in place of choriambics,
with the foot shaken free and more mobile;
(5) but you wish that henceforth our orbit run along the embankment of the Calabrian by-path,
where Flaccus bent his lyric horses toward Pindaric melos
with reins plectrum-potent,
while the string is shaken by the Glyconic meter,
and also by the Alcaic or the Pherecratic,
(10) with the Lesbian joined, or the anapestic,
flowering through eclogues of various song,
with many-colored violets of words.
as to that, grant pardon, to fashion it is hard for the ancient vates,
(15) and hard for me as well, that the mouth, sounding diverse epigrams,
not at all stumble frequently on account of the epistles,
which a manly diction forbids to wanton
with song and luxuriant measures.
(20) This scarcely Leo, king of the Castalian choir,
scarcely—he who follows him—Lampridius could,
declaiming under the weight of a twin style
before the Burdigalan pupils.

hoc me teque decet: parce, precor, iocis;
(25) quaeso, pollicitam servet ad extimum
oratoris opus cura modestiam,
quo nil deterius, si fuerit simul
in primis rigidus, mollis in ultimis.

this befits me and you: spare, I pray, the jests;
(25) I beg, let the careful work of the orator keep to the utmost end
the promised modesty,
than which nothing is worse, if he be at once
rigid at the first, soft at the last.

3. Quin immo quotiens epulo mensae lautioris hilarabere, religiosis, quod magis approbo, narrationibus vaca; his proferendis confabulatio frequens, his redicendis sollicitus auditus inserviat. certe si saluberrimis avocamentis, ut qui adhuc iuvenis, tepidius inflecteris, a Platonico Madaurensi saltim formulas mutuare convivialium quaestionum, quoque reddaris instructior, has solve propositas, has propone solvendas hisque te studiis, et dum otiaris, exerce.

3. Nay rather, whenever you are gladdened at a banquet of a more sumptuous table, devote yourself to religious narratives, which I approve the more; let frequent confabulation serve for bringing these forth, let an attentive hearing serve for recounting them. Certainly, if by most salubrious avocations you, as one still a young man, are inclined somewhat tepidly, at least borrow from the Madaurensian Platonist the formulas of convivial questions; and that you may be rendered more instructed, solve those proposed, propose those to be solved, and with these studies, even while you take leisure, exercise yourself.

4. sed quia mentio conviviorum semel incidit tuque sic carmen nobis vel ad aliam causam personamque compositum sedulo exposcis, ut me eius edendi diutius habere non possis haesitatorem, suscipe libens quod temporibus Augusti Maioriani, cum rogatu cuiusdam sodalis ad caenam conveniremus, in Petri librum magistri epistularum subito prolatum subitus effudi, meis quoque contubernalibus, dum rex convivii circa ordinandum moras nectit oxygarum, Domnulo, Severiano atque Lampridio paria pangentibus (iactanter hoc dixi, immo meliora); quos undique urbium ascitos imperator in unam civitatem, invitator in unam cenam forte contraxerat.

4. but since mention of convivial gatherings has once occurred, and you so diligently demand from me a poem composed even for another occasion and person, that you cannot have me hesitating any longer about publishing it, receive gladly what, in the times of the Emperor Majorian, when at the request of a certain companion we were assembling for dinner, I suddenly poured forth, suddenly produced in the book of Peter, Master of the Letters; while the king of the banquet was weaving delays around arranging the oxygarum, my own tent‑mates too, Domnulo, Severianus, and Lampridius, were fashioning equal pieces (I said this boastfully—nay, better ones); whom, summoned from cities on every side, the emperor had gathered into one city, and the inviter into one dinner had by chance brought together.

5. id morae tantum, dum genera metrorum sorte partimur. placuit namque pro caritate collegii, licet omnibus eadem scribendi materia existeret, non uno tamen epigrammata singulorum genere proferri, ne quispiam nostrum, qui ceteris dixisset exilius, verecundia primum, post morderetur invidia. etenim citius agnoscitur in quocumque recitante, si quo ceteri metro canat, an eo quoque scribat ingenio.

5. only so much delay, while we apportion by lot the kinds of meters. for it pleased, for the love of the collegial fellowship, although the same writing material existed for all, that nevertheless the epigrams of individuals not be brought forth in a single genre, lest any one of us, who might have spoken more slenderly than the rest, be bitten first by modesty, afterward by envy. for indeed it is more quickly recognized, with whoever is reciting, whether, if he sings in the meter which the others use, he also writes with that talent.

tu vero tunc opportunius subiecta laudabis, cum totus otio indulseris. non enim iustum est, ut censor incipias cum severitate discutere quod non potuit amicus cum serietate dictare.

but you will more opportunely praise the things submitted then, when you have wholly indulged leisure. for it is not just that you begin as a censor to discuss with severity what a friend could not dictate with seriousness.

Age convocata pubes,
locus hora, mensa causa
iubet ut volumen istud,
quod et aure et ore discis,
(5) studiis in astra tollas.
Petrus est tibi legendus,
in utraque disciplina
satis institutus auctor.
celebremus ergo, fratres,
(10) pia festa litterarum.

Come now, assembled youth,
the place, the hour, the table, the occasion
bids that this volume,
which you learn both by ear and by mouth,
(5) you raise to the stars by your studies.
Peter is to be read by you,
in both disciplines
a well-instructed author.
therefore, let us celebrate, brothers,
(10) the pious feasts of letters.

peragat diem cadentem
dape, poculis, choreis
genialis apparatus.
Rutilum toreuma bysso
(15) rutilasque ferte blattas,
recoquente quas aeno
Meliboea fucat unda,
opulentet ut meraco
bibulum colore vellus.
(20) peregrina det supellex
Ctesiphontis ac Niphatis
iuga texta beluasque
rapidas vacante panno,
acuit quibus furorem
(25) bene ficta plaga cocco
iaculoque ceu forante
cruor incruentus exit;
ubi torvus et per artem
resupina flexus ora
(30) it equo reditque telo,
simulacra bestiarum
fugiens fugansque Parthus.

perpetrate the falling day
with feast, with cups, with choreae,
the genial apparatus.
Bring a ruddy toreutic embossing on byssus
(15) and ruddy purples (blattae),
which the Meliboean wave dyes,
the bronze cauldron re-cooking them,
so that pure (mere) color may enrich
the bibulous fleece.
(20) let foreign furnishings proffer
the ridges of Ctesiphon and Niphates
and swift beasts woven,
the cloth left vacant,
by which a well-feigned wound
(25) with scarlet (coccus) sharpens their fury,
and, as though a javelin were boring,
blood, bloodless, issues forth;
where, grim, and by art
with upturned, bent-back face,
(30) he goes at the horse and returns to the spear—
the Parthian fleeing and putting to flight
the simulacra of wild beasts.

Nive pulchriora lina
gerat orbis atque lauris
(35) hederisque, pampinisque
viridantibus tegatur.
cytisos, crocos, amellos,
casias, ligustra, calthas
calathi ferant capaces,
(40) redolentibusque sertis
abacum torosque pingant.
manus uncta suco amomi
domet hispidos capillos
Arabumque messe pinguis
(45) petat alta tecta fumus.

Nive more beautiful linens
let the world wear, and with laurels
(35) and ivies, and vine-leaves
verdant, let it be covered.
cytisi, crocuses, amellus-flowers,
cassias, privets, marigolds
let capacious baskets bear,
(40) and with redolent garlands
let them paint the sideboard and the couches.
a hand anointed with the juice of amomum
let it tame shaggy hair,
and with the harvest of the Arabs rich
(45) let the smoke seek the lofty roofs.

veniente nocte nec non
numerosus erigatur
laquearibus coruscis
camerae in superna lychnus;
(50) oleumque nescientes
adipesque glutinosos
utero tumente fundant
opobalsamum lucernae.
Geruli caput plicantes
(55) anaglyptico metallo
epulas superbiores
umeris ferant onustis.
paterae, scyphi, lebetes
socient Falerna nardo
(60) tripodasque cantharosque
rosa sutilis coronet.

with night coming on, and likewise
let a numerous lamp be raised
to the coruscating coffered ceilings,
into the upper parts of the chamber;
(50) and, knowing not oil
nor gluey fats, let the lychnus
with swelling womb pour out
opobalsam from the lamp.
The bearers, bending the head
(55) beneath anaglyptic metal,
let them carry prouder courses
on burdened shoulders.
Let paterae, scyphi, and cauldrons
unite Falernian with nard,
(60) and let a stitched rose-garland
crown tripods and canthari.

iuvat ire per corollas
alabastra ventilantes;
iuvat et vago rotatu
(65) dare fracta membra ludo,
simulare vel trementes
pede, veste, voce Bacchas.
bimari remittat urbe
thymelen palenque doctas
(70) tepidas ad officinas
citharistrias Corinthus,
digiti quibus canentes
pariter sonante lingua
vice pectinis fatigent
(75) animata fila pulsu.
Date et aera fistulata,
Satyris amica nudis;
date ravulos choraulas,
quibus antra per palati
(80) crepulis reflanda buccis
gemit aura tibialis.

it delights to go through garlands,
waving alabaster flasks;
and it delights with a wandering whirl
(65) to give loosened limbs to play,
or to mimic Bacchantes trembling
with foot, garment, and voice.
let Corinth, the two-sea’d city,
send back to warm workshops
(70) citharists skilled in the thymelê and the palē,
whose fingers, while they sing,
with the tongue sounding equally,
in the stead of a plectrum weary
(75) the animate strings by their beat.
And grant fluted bronzes,
friendly to naked Satyrs;
grant hoarse choraules,
by whom through the caverns of the palate
(80) with crackling, blown-back cheeks
the tibial breeze groans.

date carminata socco,
date dicta sub cothurno,
date quicquid advocati,
(85) date quicquid et poetae
vario strepunt in actu:
Petrus haec et illa transit.
opus editum tenemus,
bimetra quod arte texens
(90) iter asperum viasque
labyrinthicas cucurrit.
sed in omnibus laborans
et ab omnibus probatus,
rapit hinc et inde palmam,
(95) per et ora docta fertur.

give songs shod with the sock,
give sayings under the cothurnus,
give whatever the advocates,
(85) give whatever too the poets
clamor in varied acting:
Peter surpasses these and those. we hold a work published,
which, weaving bimeters with art,
(90) ran a rough path and labyrinthine ways.
but laboring in all things
and approved by all,
he snatches the palm from here and there,
(95) and is borne on learned lips.

procul hinc et Hippocrenen
Aganippicosque fontes
et Apollinem canorum
comitantibus Camenis
(100)abigamus et Minervam
quasi praesulem canendi;
removete ficta fatu:
deus ista praestat unus.
Stupuit virum loquentem
(105)diadematis potestas,
toga, miles, ordo equester
populusque Romularis;
et adhuc sophos volutant
fora, templa, rura, castra.
(110)super haec fragorem alumno
Padus atque civitatum
dat amor Ligusticarum.

far from here too Hippocrene,
and the Aganippic fountains,
and Apollo tuneful,
with the accompanying Camenae,
(100)let us drive away, and Minerva
as if the prelate of singing;
remove feigned fatuity:
one God alone bestows these things.
Stood amazed at the man speaking
(105)the power of the diadem,
the toga, the soldier, the equestrian order,
and the people of Romulus;
and even now they roll “sophos”
the forums, the temples, the fields, the camps.
(110)over and above these, a roar for its foster-son
the Po gives, and
the love of the Ligurian cities.

similis favor resultat
Rhodanitidas per urbes,
(115)imitabiturque Gallos
feritas Hibericorum.
nec in hoc moratus axe
cito ad arva perget euri
aquilonibusque et austris
(120)zephyrisque perferetur.

a similar favor resounds
through the Rhodan cities,
(115)and will imitate the Gauls
the ferity of the Iberians.
nor, having lingered on this axis,
he will quickly make for the fields of Eurus,
and by the north winds and the south winds
(120)and by the west winds he will be borne along.

6. Ecce, dum quaero quid cantes, ipse cantavi. tales enim nugas in imo scrinii fundo muribus perforatas post annos circiter viginti profero in lucem, quales pari tempore absentans, cum domum rediit, Ulixes invenire potuisset. proinde peto, ut praesentibus ludicris libenter ignoscas.

6. Behold, while I inquire what you are singing, I myself have sung. For such trifles, bored through by mice at the very bottom of a writing-chest, I bring out into the light after about twenty years—such as Ulysses, absent for an equal time, could have found when he returned home. Accordingly I ask that you kindly pardon these present jests.

illud vero nec verecunde nec impudenter iniungo, ut quod ipse de familiaris mei integro libro pronuntiavi, hoc tu quasi sollicitatus exempli necessitate de meo sentias. vale.

this, indeed, I enjoin neither bashfully nor impudently, that what I myself pronounced concerning the entire book of my familiar, this you, as if solicited by the necessity of example, should think about my own. farewell.

EPISTULA XIV

LETTER 14

Sidonius Burgundioni suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Burgundio, greetings.

1. Dupliciter excrucior, quod nostrum uterque lecto tenetur. nihil enim est durius, quam cum praesentes amici dividuntur communione langoris; quippe si accidat, ut nec intra unum conclave decumbant, nulla sunt verba, nulla solacia, nulla denique mutui oratus vicissitudo: itaque singulis maeror ingens, isque plus de altero; nam parum possis quamquam et infirmus periclitante quem diligas tibi timere.

1. I am doubly excruciated, because each of us is held to the bed. For nothing is harsher than when friends present are divided by a communion of languor; indeed, if it happens that they do not lie within one and the same chamber, there are no words, no solaces, and, finally, no vicissitude of mutual entreaty: and so for each there is a huge sorrow, and that the more on account of the other; for you can scarcely, though yourself infirm, fear for yourself when the one you love is in peril.

2. sed deus mihi, fili amantissime, pro te paventi validissimum scrupulum excussit, quia pristinas incipis vires recuperare. diceris enim iam velle consurgere, quodque plus opto, iam posse. me certe taliter consulis et sollicitudine prope praecoqua quaestiunculis litterarum iam quasi ex asse vegetus exerces, audire plus ambiens etsi adhuc aeger Socratem de moribus quam Hippocratem de corporibus disputantem; dignus omnino, quem plausibilibus Roma foveret ulnis quoque recitante crepitantis Athenaei subsellia cuneata quaterentur.

2. but God, to me, most loving son, as I was trembling for you, has shaken out the very strong scruple, because you are beginning to recover your former forces. For you are said now to wish to rise, and—which I desire more—now to be able. You certainly take thought for me in such a way, and with an almost precocious solicitude, now as if almost entirely vigorous, you exercise me with little literary questionlets, aiming to hear more—even though still ill—Socrates disputing about morals than Hippocrates about bodies; altogether worthy, one whom Rome would cherish in applauding arms, and that, with you too reciting, the wedge-shaped benches of the clattering Athenaeum would be shaken.

3. quod procul dubio consequebare, si pacis locique condicio permitteret, ut illic senatoriae iuventutis contubernio mixtus erudirere. cuius te gloriae pariter ac famae capacem de orationis tuae qualitate coniecto, in qua te decentissime nuper pronuntiantem quae quidem scripseras extemporaliter admirabantur benivoli, mirabantur superbi, morabantur periti. sed ne impudenter verecundiam tuam laudibus nimiis ultro premamus, praeconia tua iustius de te quam tibi scribimus.

3. which you would without doubt be attaining, if the condition of peace and of the place permitted, so that there, mingled in the contubernium of the senatorial youth, you might be educated. Of which glory and equally of fame I conjecture you capable from the quality of your oration, in which, most fittingly, the benevolent lately admired you as proclaiming extemporaneously the things which indeed you had written; the proud marveled; the skilled lingered. But lest we immodestly press your modesty with excessive praises, we more justly write your encomia about you than to you.

hoc potius, unde est causa sermonis, intromittamus.

let us rather introduce this, whence the cause of the discourse arises.

4. Igitur interrogas per pugillatorem, quos recurrentes asseram versus, ut celer explicem, sed sub exemplo. hi nimirum sunt recurrentes, qui metro stante neque litteris loco motis ut ab exordio ad terminum, sic a fine releguntur ad summum. sic est illud antiquum:

4. Therefore you ask by the tablet-bearer what verses I should assert to be recurrent, that I may swiftly explain, but under an example. These, to wit, are recurrent: with the meter standing and with the letters not moved from their place, as from the exordium to the terminus they are read, so from the end they are read back to the top. Thus is that ancient one:

Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.
[Et illud:
Sole medere pede, ede perede melos.]

Rome, to you suddenly, with movements, love will go.
[And that:
With the sole heal, with the foot; eat, devour the melody.]

5. Nec non habentur pro recurrentibus, qui pedum lege servata etsi non per singulos apices, per singula tamen verba replicantur, ut est unum distichon meum (qualia reor equidem legi multa multorum), quod de rivulo lusi, qui repentino procellarum pastus illapsu publicumque aggerem confragoso diluvio supergressus subdita viae culta inundaverat, quamquam depositurus insanam mox abundantiam, quippe quam pluviis appendicibus intumescentem nil superna venae perennis pondera inflarent.

5. And likewise are held as recurrent those which, with the law of the feet observed, although not through individual letters, yet are replicated word by word, as is one distich of mine (of which sort indeed I think I have read many of many men), which I played upon about a little rivulet, which, fed by a sudden influx of tempests and having overpassed the public embankment with a crashing deluge, had inundated the cultivated lands lying beneath the road—although it was soon going to deposit its insane abundance—since, being intumescent with the appendages of rains, the supernal weights of a perennial vein were contributing nothing to inflate it.

6. igitur istic (nam viator adveneram), dum magis ripam quam vadum quaero, tali iocatus epigrammate per turbulenti terga torrentis his saltem pedibus incessi:

6. therefore there (for I had arrived as a wayfarer), while I seek the bank rather than the ford, having jested with such an epigram, I trod over the backs of the turbulent torrent with at least these feet:

Praecipiti modo quod decurrit tramite flumen
tempore consumptum iam cito deficiet.

The river which runs down by a precipitous course,
consumed by time, will very soon run dry.

Hoc si recurras, ita legitur:

If you run this back, it reads thus:

Deficiet cito iam consumptum tempore flumen,
tramite decurrit quod modo praecipiti.

It will soon fail, the river already consumed by time,
which just now runs down by a headlong channel.

En habes versus, quorum syllabatim mirere rationem. ceterum pompam, quam non habent, non docebunt. sufficienter indicasse me suspicor quod tu requirendum existimasti.

Behold, you have the verses, whose rationale you may admire, syllable by syllable. But the pomp, which they do not have, they will not teach. I suspect that I have sufficiently indicated what you judged should be inquired into.

7. simile quiddam facis et ipse, si proposita restituas eque diverso quae repeteris expedias. namque imminet tibi thematis celeberrimi votiva redhibitio, laus videlicet peroranda, quam edideras, Caesaris Iulii. quae materia tam grandis est, ut studentum si quis fuerit ille copiosissimus, nihil amplius in ipsa debeat cavere, quam ne quid minus dicat.

7. you yourself do something similar, if you restore the things proposed and likewise from the opposite side expedite what you are being asked to repeat. For there presses upon you the votive re‑offering of a most celebrated theme, namely the laudation to be perorated, of Julius Caesar, which you had published. Which material is so grand that, if there should be the most copious of students, he ought to take no further care in it than that he not say anything less.

nam si omittantur quae de titulis dictatoris invicti scripta Patavinis sunt voluminibus, quis opera Suetonii, quis Iuventii Martialis historiam quisve ad extremum Balbi ephemeridem fando adaequaverit?

for if the things written in the Paduan volumes about the titles of the unconquered Dictator are omitted, who will have matched by speaking the works of Suetonius, who the history of Iuventius Martialis, or, at the last, who the ephemeris (day-book) of Balbus?

8. sed tuis ceris haec reservamus. officii magis est nostri auditoribus scamna componere, praeparare aures fragoribus intonaturis, dumque virtutes tu dicis alienas, nos tuas dicere. neque vereare me quospiam iudices Catonianos advocaturum, qui modo invidiam, modo ignorantiam suam factae severitatis velamine tegant, quamquam imperitis venia debetur; ceterum quisquis ita malus est, ut intelligat bene scripta nec tamen laudet, hunc boni intellegunt nec tamen laudant.

8. but we reserve these things for your wax tablets. It is more our duty to arrange the benches for the hearers, to prepare the ears for the crashes about to thunder, and while you speak others’ virtues, for us to speak yours. Nor fear that I will call in certain Catonian judges, who now cloak their envy, now their ignorance, under the veil of fabricated severity, although pardon is owed to the unskilled; but whoever is so evil as to understand well-written things and yet not praise them, him the good understand and yet do not praise.

9. Proinde curas tuas hoc metu absolvo: faventes audient cuncti, cuncti foventes, gaudiisque, quae facies recreatus, una fruemur. nam plerique laudabunt facundiam tuam, plurimi ingenium, toti pudorem. non enim minus laudi feretur adulescentem vel, quod est pulchrius, paene adhuc puerum de palaestra publici examinis tam morum referre suffragia quam litterarum.

9. Accordingly I absolve your cares from this fear: all will listen favoring, all supporting, and together we shall enjoy the joys which you, refreshed, will bring about. For many will praise your eloquence, more your genius, all your modesty. For it will count no less to your praise that a youth, or—what is more beautiful—almost still a boy, from the palestra of public examination brings back the suffrages of conduct as well as of letters.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA XV

LETTER 15

Sidonius Gelasio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Gelasius, greetings.

1. Probas (neque deprecor) me deliquisse; deliqui, quippe qui necdum nomine tuo ullas operi meo litteras iunxerim. sed tamen scribis tum quod erraverim veniabile fore, si quod et ipse decantes mittam ab exemplo, quia scilicet Tonantio meo ad parem causam futuras usui litteras bimetras miserim. praeter hoc quereris paginam meam, si resolvatur in lusum, solis hendecasyllabis frequentari.

1. You prove (nor do I deprecate it) that I have been delinquent; I have been delinquent, indeed, in that I have not yet joined to my work any letters in your name. But nevertheless you write that then my having erred will be venial, if I too send something for you yourself to chant as a sample, since, to be sure, to my Tonantius I sent dimeter letters, to be of use for a like cause in the future. Besides this you complain that my page, if it be relaxed into play, is frequented by hendecasyllables alone.

qua de re trochaica garrulitate suspensa senariolos aliquos plus requiris. servio iniunctis; tu modo placidus accipias, sive oden hanc ipsam mavis vocare sive eglogam. nam metrum diu infrequentatum durius texitur.

on which account, with trochaic garrulity suspended, you request a few more little senarii. I obey the injunctions; only do you receive it placidly, whether you prefer to call this very piece an ode or an eclogue. For a meter long unfrequented is woven more stiffly.

Iubes, amice, nostra per volumina
modis resultet incitatioribus
ferox iambus, ut trochaeus hactenus,
pigrasque bigas et quaterna tempora
(5) spondeus addat, ut moram volucripes
habeat parumper insitam trimetria,
resonetque mixtus ille pes celerrimus,
bene nuncupatus quondam ab arte pyrricha,
loco locandus undecumque in ultimo;
(10) spondam daturus et subinde versui,
modo in priore parte, nunc in extima
anapaestus, ipse quamquam et absolutius
pronuntietur, cum secuta tertia
geminae brevique longa adhaeret syllaba.
(15) Quae temperare vix callet gregarius
poeta, ut ipse cernis esse Sollium;
mihi pecten errat nec per ora concava
vaga lingua flexum competenter explicat
epos. sed istud aptius paraverit
(20) Leo Leonis aut secutus orbitas
cantu in Latino, cum prior sit Attico
Consentiorum qui superstes est patri,
fide, voce, metris ad fluenta Pegasi
cecinisse dictus omniforme canticum,
(25) quotiensque verba Graia carminaverit,
tenuisse celsa iunctus astra Pindaro
montemque victor isse per biverticem
nullis secundus inter astra Delphica.

You bid, friend, that through our volumes
the fierce iambus resound with more inciting measures,
as the trochaic heretofore; and that the spondee add
sluggish pairs and four beats, so that the fleet-winged
(5) trimeter may have a little delay inbuilt;
and that that very swift foot, mixed in, resound,
well denominated once by the art “pyrrhic,”
to be placed in the last place, wherever;
(10) and that, besides, an anapaest supply a spondee to the verse
now in the prior part, now in the far end—
although it itself is pronounced more absolutely,
when, the third following, a long syllable adheres
to the twin short. (15) Which to temper a rank-and-file
poet hardly knows, as you yourself see Sollius to be;
for me the plectrum wanders, nor through hollow mouths
does the roving tongue suitably unfold the bending
epos. But this more fitly would be prepared
(20) by Leo son of Leo, or, having followed the courses
with song in Latin—though the former be Attic—
by the one of the Consentii who survives his father,
said, with fidelity, with voice, with meters, to have sung
an all-formed canticle to the streams of Pegasus,
(25) and whenever he has versified Greek words,
to have held the lofty stars, joined with Pindar,
and, victor, to have gone through the two-crested mountain,
second to none among the Delphic stars.

at uterque vatum si lyrae poeticae
(30) Latiare carmen aptet absque Dorico,
Venusina, Flacce, plectra ineptus exeras
Iapygisque verna cygnus Aufidi
Atacem tonare cum suis oloribus
cana et canora colla victus ingemas.
(35) Nec ista sola sunt perita pectora,
licet et peritis haec peritiora sint:
Severianus ista rhetor altius,
Afer vaferque Domnulus politius,
scholasticusque sub rotundioribus
(40) Petrus Camenis dictitasset acrius,
epistularis usquequaque nec stilus
virum vetaret, ut stupenda pangeret.
potuisset ista semper efficacius
humo atque gente cretus in Ligustide
(45) Proculus melodis insonare pulsibus
limans faceta quaeque sic poemata,
Venetam lacessat ut favore Mantuam
Homericaeque par et ipse gloriae,
rotas Maronis arte sectans compari.

but if each of the bards should adapt to the poetic lyre
(30) a Latian song without Doric,
you would awkwardly brandish the Venusian plectra, Flaccus,
and, a native swan of the Iapygian Aufidus,
you would lament, vanquished, that the Atax thundered with its own swans,
with your hoary and melodious necks.
(35) Nor are those the only expert hearts,
although even to the skilled these are more skilled:
Severianus the rhetor, those things more loftily,
the African and wily Domnulus, more polishedly,
and Peter the scholastic, under more rounded Muses,
(40) would have often said more keenly,
nor would the epistolary style everywhere forbid
the man from composing stupendous things.
he could always have done these things more effectually,
born of the soil and stock in Liguria,
(45) Proculus, to resound with melodious beats,
thus polishing each and every witty poem,
so that he might challenge Venetian Mantua in favor
and himself be equal to Homeric glory,
tracking the wheels of Maro with comparable art.

(50) Ego corde et ore iure despicabilis
quid inter hosce te rogante garriam,
loquacitatis impudentiam probans
animique vota destituta litteris?
sed quid negabo nec pudore territus?
(55) amor timere nescit: inde parui.

(50) I, in heart and in mouth, justly despicable,
what shall I chatter among these here, at your asking,
approving the impudence of loquacity
and the mind’s vows destitute of letters?
but what shall I deny, not terrified by shame?
(55) love does not know how to fear: from that I obeyed.

2. Ignosce desueta repetenti atque ob impleta quae iusseras nihil amplius quam raritatis indulgentiam praestolaturo. ceterum mihi si similia post iniunxeris, quo queam fieri magis obsequens, curabis ad vicem carminis aut dictare quae cantem aut saltare quae rideam. vale.

2. Pardon one repeating what is unaccustomed, and, because I have fulfilled what you ordered, as one who will expect nothing more than the indulgence of rarity. Moreover, if hereafter you enjoin me to similar things, that I may be able to become more obsequious, you will take care, in place of a song, either to dictate what I may sing or to dance what I may laugh at. Farewell.

EPISTULA XVI

LETTER 16

Sidonius Firmino suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Firminus, greeting.

1. Si recordaris, domine fili, hoc mihi iniunxeras, ut hic nonus libellus peculiariter tibi dictatus ceteris octo copularetur, quos ad Constantium scripsi, virum singularis ingenii, consilii salutaris, certe in tractatibus publicis ceteros eloquentes, seu diversa sive paria decernat, praestantioris facundiae dotibus antecellentem. sponsio impleta est, non exacte quidem, sed vel instanter.

1. If you remember, lord son, you had enjoined this upon me: that this ninth little book, peculiarly dictated to you, be coupled to the other eight, which I wrote to Constantius—a man of singular genius, of salutary counsel—certainly in public tractates surpassing the other eloquents, whether he decides different things or equal ones, by the endowments of superior facundity. The pledge has been fulfilled, not exactly indeed, but at least promptly.

2. nam peragratis forte dioecesibus cum domum veni, si quod schedium temere iacens chartulis putribus ac veternosis continebatur, raptim coactimque translator festinus exscripsi, tempore hiberno nil retardatus, quin actutum iussa complerem, licet antiquarium moraretur insiccabilis gelu pagina et calamo durior gutta, quam iudicasses imprimentibus digitis non fluere sed frangi. sic quoque tamen compotem officii prius agere curavi, quam duodecimum nostrum, quem Numae mensem vos nuncupatis, Favonius flatu teporo, pluviisque natalibus maritaret.

2. for, when as it happened I came home after traversing the dioceses, if any improvised piece, lying about, was contained in rotting and drowsy little sheets, I, a hasty transcriber, copied it out in snatched and compelled fashion, in wintertime delayed by nothing from straightway completing the orders, although the antiquary was hindered by a page that the frost would not let dry and by a drop harder than the pen, which you would have judged, as the fingers pressed, not to flow but to shatter. even so, however, I took care first to discharge the duty before our twelfth month, which you denominate the month of Numa, should be wedded by Favonius with tepid breath and with natal rains.

3. restat, ut te arbitro non reposcamus res omnino discrepantissimas, maturitatem celeritatemque. nam quotiens liber quispiam scribi cito iubetur, non tantum honorem spectat auctor a merito quantum ab obsequio. de reliquo, quia tibi nuper ad Gelasium virum sat benignissimum missos iambicos placuisse pronuntias, per hos te quoque Mitylenaei oppidi vernulas munerabor.

3. it remains that, with you as arbiter, we not demand things utterly at variance—maturity and speed. For whenever some book is ordered to be written quickly, the author looks to honor not so much from merit as from obedience. As for the rest, since you lately proclaim that the iambics sent to Gelasius, a most benign man, pleased you, by these I will also present you with the homebred natives of the town of Mytilene.

Iam per alternum pelagus loquendi
egit audacem mea cymba cursum
nec bipertito timuit fluento
flectere clavum.

Now through the alternate sea of speaking
my skiff has driven an audacious course
nor in the bipartite current did it fear
to bend the tiller.

Solvit antennas, legit alta vela,
palmulam ponit manus, atque transtris
litori iunctis petit osculandum
saltus harenam.

He loosens the yardarms, sets the lofty sails,
the hand sets down the little paddle, and with the thwarts
joined to the shore he makes for the sand
to be kissed with a leap.

Mussitans quamquam chorus invidorum
prodat hirritu rabiem canino,
nil palam sane loquitur pavetque
publica puncta.

Although the murmuring chorus of the envious
may betray with a snarl its canine rabid fury,
it says nothing openly indeed, and it fears
the public votes.

Verberant puppim, quatiunt carinam,
ventilant spondas laterum rotundas,
arborem circa volitant sinistrae
sibila linguae.

They lash the stern, they shake the keel,
they buffet the rounded gunwales of the sides,
around the mast flit the hisses of sinister
tongues.

Nos tamen rectam comite arte proram,
nil tumescentes veriti procellas,
sistimus portu, geminae potiti
fronde coronae,

We, however, with art as companion, hold the prow straight,
fearing nothing of the tumescent storms,
we make fast in harbor, having gained
the foliage of a double crown,

Quam mihi indulsit populus Quirini,
blattifer vel quam tribuit senatus,
quam peritorum dedit ordo consors
iudiciorum,

which the people of Quirinus indulged to me,
or which the purple-bearing senate bestowed,
which the order, partner in expert
judgments, gave,

Cum meis poni statuam perennem
Nerva Traianus titulis videret,
inter auctores utriusque fixam
bybliothecae;

When Nerva Trajanus saw an everlasting statue being set up
with my titles, fixed among the authors
of each library,
in the bibliothecae;

Quamque post, visus prope, post bilustre
tempus accepi, capiens honorem,
qui patrum ac plebis simul unus olim
iura gubernat.

And which thereafter, seen close by, after a ten-year span I received, taking up the honor
which, as one alone, at once governs the rights of both the Fathers and the Plebs.

Praeter heroos ioca multa multis
texui pannis; elegos frequenter
subditos senis pedibus rotavi
commate bino.

Besides heroics, I have woven many jests with many patches;
I have frequently turned elegies,
subjected to six feet,
with a double comma.

Nunc per undenas equitare suetus
syllabas lusi celer atque metro
Sapphico creber cecini, citato
rarus iambo.

Now, accustomed to ride through eleven syllables,
I have played swiftly, and in Sapphic meter
I have sung frequently, seldom with the quickened
iamb.

Nec recordari queo, quanta quondam
scripserim primo iuvenis calore;
unde pars maior utinam taceri
possit et abdi!

Nor can I recall how much once
I wrote in the first heat of youth;
whence would that the greater part
could be kept silent and hidden!

Nam senectutis propiore meta,
quicquid extremis sociamur annis,
plus pudet, si quid leve lusit aetas,
nunc reminisci.

For, with the turning-post of old age nearer,
whatever we consort with in the last years,
it shames more, if our age played anything light,
now to reminisce.

Quod perhorrescens ad epistularum
transtuli cultum genus omne curae,
ne reus cantu petulantiore
sim reus actu;

Shuddering at this, I transferred all the kind of my care to the culture of epistles,
lest, arraigned for a more petulant song,
I be guilty in act.

Neu puter solvi per amoena dicta,
schema si chartis phalerasque iungam,
clerici ne quid maculet rigorem
fama poetae.

And lest I be thought to be dissolved by pleasant dicta,
if I should join schema and phalerae to the pages,
lest anything should stain the rigor of the cleric
by the poet’s fame.

Denique ad quodvis epigramma posthac
non ferar pronus, teneroque metro
vel gravi nullum cito cogar exhinc
promere carmen:

Finally, toward any epigram hereafter
I shall not be borne prone; and with tender meter
or with grave, I shall not be quickly compelled from henceforth
to bring forth any poem:

Persecutorum nisi quaestiones
forsitan dicam meritosque caelum
martyras mortis pretio parasse
praemia vitae.

Unless perhaps I may speak of the interrogations of persecutors,
and that the martyrs have deservedly won heaven,
having procured, at the price of death,
the rewards of life.

E quibus primum mihi psallat hymnus
qui Tolosatem tenuit cathedram,
de gradu summo Capitoliorum
praecipitatum;

Of these, let a hymn first psalmodize for me
the one who held the Tolosan cathedra,
cast headlong from the highest step
of the Capitols;

Quem negatorem Iovis ac Minervae
et crucis Christi bona confitentem
vinxit ad tauri latus iniugati
plebs furibunda,

Whom, a denier of Jove and Minerva,
and confessing the good of the cross of Christ,
the frenzied plebs bound to the flank of an unyoked bull,
in their fury,

Ut per abruptum bove concitato
spargeret cursus lacerum cadaver
cautibus tinctis calida soluti
pulte cerebri.

So that, over the precipice, with the ox incited,
the course might scatter the lacerated cadaver,
the crags tinctured with the warm porridge of the dissolved
brain.

Post Saturninum volo plectra cantent,
quos patronorum reliquos probavi
anxio duros mihi per labores
auxiliatos,

After Saturninus I want the plectra to sing,
those remaining of the patrons whom I have proved,
for me anxious, through hard labors,
having given help,

Singulos quos nunc pia nuncupatim
non valent versu cohibere verba;
quos tamen chordae nequeunt sonare,
corda sonabunt.

Each one whom pious words now, by name,
are not strong enough to confine in verse;
whom, however, the chords cannot sound,
the hearts will sound.

4. Redeamus in fine ad oratorium stilum materiam praesentem proposito semel ordine terminaturi, ne, si epilogis musicis opus prosarium clauserimus, secundum regulas Flacci, ubi amphora coepit institui, urceus potius exisse videatur. vale.

4. Let us return in the end to the oratorical stylus, about to finish the present material in the order once proposed, lest, if we close a prose work with musical epilogues, according to the rules of Flaccus, where an amphora began to be set up, a little pitcher should rather seem to have come out. farewell.